Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to thank those senators who have contributed to this debate today. Schedule 1 to the bill makes a range of reforms to the Australian screen production incentive, including increasing the producer offset for films that are not feature films released in cinemas to 30 per cent of the total qualifying Australian production expenditure and various threshold and integrity amendments across the three screen tax offsets.

I can also confirm that the government has agreed to the recommendations of the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee to increase the copyright threshold for documentaries, and I thank senators involved in the preparation of that report. Overall, the changes to the Australian screen production incentive will ensure the screen tax offsets effectively target areas that require support and encourage production and commercial distribution of quality Australian screen content in a digital environment.

Schedule 2 to the bill relates to small business insolvency. The main small business insolvency reforms which came into effect on 1 January 2021 introduced new insolvency processes suitable for small businesses, reducing complexity, time and costs. These processes enable more Australian small businesses to quickly restructure. Where restructure is not possible, businesses can wind up faster, enabling greater returns for creditors and employees. This measure makes consequential amendments which will support the operation of the new insolvency processes.

Schedule 3 to the bill makes minor and technical amendments to Treasury portfolio legislation. This includes amendments that clarify the law to ensure that it operates in accordance with the policy intent, making minor policy changes to improve administrative outcomes or remedy unintended consequences and correct technical or drafting defects. I commend this bill to the Senate. I table a supplementary explanatory memorandum relating to the government amendments to be moved in this bill.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.